New nail polish color to star off the week: Strawberry Margarita by OPI. Perfect color for warm weather!
Monthly Archives: May 2014
Julep Plie Wand – First Impression
The Julep Plie Wand, Julep’s magic tool to simplify at-home manicures, is here to change the DIY manicure game…or so it claims. I received a Plie Wand in my latest Julep Maven Box and here are my initial thoughts.
The Plie Wand
The Plie Wand is ergonomically designed to help users get a perfect mani. When you use it in your dominant hand, the wand stays straight. When you’re painting with your non-dominant hand, the wand can bend (thus the plie…) to fit your hand more comfortably to best facilitate painting. The wand magnetically fits into a cap that goes over a regular Julep polish cap. (The caps do come off, if you’re not familiar). My box also came with an extra magnetic top with a brush so you can use the wand with non-Julep polishes as well. I used this with a Julep polish, Laree, which was in my May box.
Here’s the process:
1. Remove the over cap:
Step 1
2. Replace with magnetic cap:
Step 2
3. Insert Plie Wand:
Step 3
4. Polish away! I painted with my dominant hand first, just see how it worked. I actually did feel like I had slightly more control over the brush and where the polish went. Then, I painted with my non-dominant hand and bend the wand like this:
Step 4
This was my hand position for my non-dominant hand.
And here’s the raw, finished product of my right hand after being painted with the Plie Wand:
No touch ups!
Overall, the wand did work well. However, I don’t know if that’s necessarily because of the wand or because I took my time to polish really slowly. The polish did stay more “in the lines,” and I was pretty happy with the result. I’ll keep playing with it, but if I don’t have it for my next mani, I won’t cry about it.
Did you get a Plie Wand in your box this month? What did you think about it? Will you try one if you didn’t get a wand?
May Julep Maven Box!
After a long wait, May’s Julep Maven box is finally here! This month’s box took a while to ship because it included the long-awaited Plie Wand to make manicures quick and flawless. I’ll be doing a separate review of that tool in an upcoming post because I want to make sure to give it a proper amount of time to try, but here’s a quick look at the colors for May’s Maven box.
First of all, this box was huge compared to previous month’s boxes.
May Julep Maven Box
I went with the Boho Glam Box this month. First, let’s talk about the Plie Wand. According to Julep, this is “an ergonomic nail polishing tool designed to solve common polishing pain points and give you better results.” It’s longer than a full-size pen, and the box came with a cap for the Maven polishes. If you’re interested in how this works, check out this video.
Now, let’s look at the colors in the Boho Glam Box!
This month’s theme was “Fresh Twist.” I also added on Laree from the Bombshell box. Here are some swatches:
From top to bottom: Jeanne, Paulette, Laree
Jeanne: “A jet-set blue creme.” This is a nice, full-coverage polish. I have other baby blue polishes, but this one is more vibrant and opaque. It doesn’t have a shimmer and will be a perfect color for summer.
Paulette: “Golden lilac tulle shimmer.” I LOVE this color. I have a similar lilac polish, but not one with this golden micro-shimmer. This is the perfect spring polish.
Laree: “Golden pink taffeta shimmer.” This is my favorite color from this box. It’s a beautiful coraly-type melon with a subtle shimmer. I love how vibrant it is and how shimmery the finish is without being over-bearing. It’s really beautiful.
So those are the colors! I’ll finally have time to do a full manicure in the next few days, so I’ll try out the Plie Wand and give you an update/demo. It looks a little intimidating, but hopefully it will be easy to figure out.
Did you get a Julep box this month? What colors did you get? What polishes are you excited about for spring? Until next time!
Karen's Corner 